


You Need a Hand to Hold

by SadieAndor



Series: Tumblr Prompts [2]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Cassian-centric, Doctor Who AU, F/M, Jyn and Cassian as the Doctor's companions, The TARDIS ships it, Wobani is inhumane, dislocated shoulder, not sure what the difference is, or fusion?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-08-20 23:44:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20236351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SadieAndor/pseuds/SadieAndor
Summary: The first time the Doctor meets Cassian Andor he’s six years old and not yet alone.Or, the Doctor and his companion travel to Wobani, and Cassian's life will never be the same.





	You Need a Hand to Hold

**Author's Note:**

> From a prompt from @redstyxsora on Tumblr- "Incorporate your favorite book/book series or tv series into the fic somehow, it can be an au based on it/them or just that the characters watch/read it together or whatever you feel you want to do with it" and it became this! 
> 
> The title is from something the 10th Doctor says in S02E14:  
"There's a lot of things you need to get across this universe. Warp drive, wormhole refractors… You know the thing you need most of all? You need a hand to hold."  
(Thanks to TinCanTelephone for the full quote!)
> 
> It's weird, but it I hope you enjoy!

The first time the Doctor meets Cassian Andor he’s six years old and not yet alone. He’s small for his age, and clutching a small stuffed creature to his chest. He and his sister, four years older than him but barely bigger, peer through the cracks in the rickety wall separating them from the yard where the TARDIS lands. Their resemblance makes it impossible for them to be anything but siblings – matching brown eyes and dark, dark hair.

“Hullo!” he says, “Could you tell me where I am, by any chance? Got a bit lost, you know.”

There’s undisguised suspicion in the little girl’s wide eyes, as she hides her brother behind her.

“Alright, well. I’ll be right back.”

When he does return it’s with two apples and a thermal blanket. 

“Come along,” he coaxes, “You can have these, but I can’t pass them through the wall!”

Cautiously, she crawls under the wall, holding herself away from him, keeping herself between him and her brother. Reaching timidly out, she takes both pieces of fruit.

“There we are,” he says. “Now can you tell me, dear, what’s you’re name?”

She narrows her eyes. “Sienna.”

“Sienna, that’s a lovely name! Hello, Sienna, I’m the Doctor. And your brother, his name is…”

Sienna doesn’t answer this, but the little boy does.

“I’m Cassian.” He takes one of the apples to bite into.

“Hello, Cassian, I’m the Doctor!”

It takes him most of an hour to coax their story from them, but he does. He learns just how recently and how cruelly their parents were killed. Learns how they survive here, in the conflict that permeates the Festian streets.

It takes him that entire hour to come to the terrible realization that there’s nothing he can do for them. He can’t stop the Imperial occupation – it’s a fixed point in time. And he would be a monster to bring not one, but two children on the TARDIS. They would be no safer.

So that day he leaves them with a thermal blanket, the only jackets he can find that would come close to fitting them and a few days worth of protein bars. Sienna whispers, “Thank you,” and he casts his eyes down and returns to the TARDIS.

-

The second time the Doctor meets Cassian Andor he’s seventeen and not Cassian Andor at all. He’s Casein Powell, a promising student at a prestigious Imperial academy. Recognition flashes in the boy’s eyes at their momentary eye contact, and then grief. It’s only a moment, but the Doctor can read it. He knows why he’s here – a rebel spy, he has to be, and in that fleeting gaze he sees a lone wolf. So Sienna, then, is gone.

“I’m sorry,” he murmurs as he passes. For what, he’s not quite sure. Cassian nods, and it’s the only acknowledgement he gets.

-

The third time the Doctor meets Cassian Andor he’s twenty-five and the war Is over. The rebels have won and there’s no place for a hardened spy in peacetime, so he’s been pushed aside. He has no one, and now that the fight is over he has nothing.

When the Doctor sees him he’s alone, walking through the same neighbourhood where he and Sienna first encountered him, all those years ago. He barely reacts to the sight of the TARDIS.

With a quiet sigh, he acknowledges him the way he didn’t last time. “Doctor.”

“Hello, Cassian.” 

Neither says anything for a moment, before the Doctor says, “I’m sorry about Sienna.”

Another silence, and then, “It was a long time ago.”

“What happened, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I was twelve, we were working in a factory. Her arm got caught in the machinery, got all cut up. The infection killed her a week before her seventeenth birthday.”

“I’m so, so sorry.”

“Wasn’t your fault,” he says. And then, “What are you doing here?”

“I’m not too sure about that myself. I think the TARDIS likes you.”

“TARDIS?”

“Time and relative dimension in space. She’s a time machine.”

“Well, that does explain some things.”

“Come along, then. All of time and space, anywhere you’d like!”

-

That’s how Cassian Andor ends up on an unknown planet in the year 24809, CE seventeen days later, watching the Doctor fiddle fruitlessly with dials and switches, muttering to himself. After several minutes of this he ventures,

“What’s wrong?” 

The Doctor shakes his head, as if he’s trying to clear it, and then says, “Nothing, nothing’s wrong. Let’s go see what’s outside, shall we?”

The scene when they step out is appalling.

“It’s… It’s a prison,” Cassian says. “It looks like the ones the Imperials built.”

In every direction it looks the same – endless kilometers of prisoners, guards and weapons. In the far distance to their left and directly behind them there are clusters of buildings, all concrete and fencing.

“Wobani. It’s a prison, all right, but not a moral one. One that covers this entire planet. And most of these people, I’m afraid, are almost innocent and will never get out.”

As he speaks, two guards with three prisoners between them march across the path. Just as they pass in front of them one of the prisoners stumbles and falls. She’s tiny – a head shorter than either of the other captives and the kind of thin that speaks to months of malnourishment. 

“Get up,” a guard says, and when she doesn’t immediately obey he grabs her arm and yanks. She cries out. Her arm twists into an unnatural angle, and they can see he dislocated her shoulder.

The other guard grabs her other shoulder, and they hall her back onto her feet. “Well? Aren’t you going to thank us?” 

Her answer, unlike the men’s’ jeers, is too quiet for Cassian and the Doctor to hear, but judging by the reaction it isn’t the one they wanted.

‘Ungrateful little…” They push her back to the ground and one pulls a whip from his belt.

“Doctor,” Cassian murmurs, calling his attention back for the first time since the scene started. His fists are clenched and he’s shaking with anger, “You need to stop them.”

He’s shared some of his past already, so it doesn’t take much creativity to imagine why the scene might affect him so. Even now the girl tries to stand, and receives another lash to the back for her trouble.

“Doctor?” He looks like he might be sick. The Doctor comes to a decision, and he’s across the path in a matter of seconds, psychic papers out.

“Gentlemen. I’ll take her from here, if you don’t mind.”

“Who’re you?”

“…Head of the medical department.”

“Prisoner 3711 is under our authority.”

“Except that now she’s injured, and that puts her under mine. Come along, 3711. Let’s have a look at that shoulder.”

She follows him and Cassian, but stops short of the entrance of the TARDIS.

“There isn’t a medical department. What do you want from me?”

The Doctor turns. “You’re right, they’re isn’t. What there is is the offer of safe transit to your cell, a shower and a meal.”

She steps inside, and Cassian closes the door after her. 

“Who are you?” She asks.

“I’m the Doctor, and this is Cassian. Pleased to meet you, miss…”

She doesn’t fill in the blank, and the silence lasts a beat too long.

“Right. Well then. Can you tell be your cell number?” She does. The Doctor tweaks the settings just slightly, and a few seconds later when Cassian opens the door they’re looking at the inside of a small cell.

“Someone going to notice!” Cassian protests.

“Notice what?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe that there’s a space ship in her cell!”

“No, they won’t. Now if it’s alright with you,” he speaks again to the woman, “We can have a look at that arm. Cassian, am I wrong in my assumption that you know what to do?”

“Yes, I can… I could do it.” He approaches her carefully. “If you’ll let me?”

She bites her lip, and then nods. He tries to be gentle as he takes her arm. She winces, but doesn’t say anything.

“It still hurts, no?”

She nods again, and he can feel how tense she is.

“Miss, or… what can I call you?”

She considers this for a long moment, before she says, “Jyn.”

“Jyn. I’m afraid I don’t have any of the training to do this properly, but I have done it before. Your shoulder is dislocated, and I’m going to reduce it. OK?”

“I know it’s dislocated,” she says, quiet, “I’m not an idiot, so don’t talk to be like I am How many times have you done this?”

He keeps his face impassive. “A few. I was a soldier. You pick stuff up.”

“Yeah, well, same here. Cassian, was it? It’s sweet of you to help but I can do this myself.”

Cassian shakes his head, incredulous, and turns away from her. “I don’t know what you want me to do,” he tells the Doctor.

“Be her friend,” he whispers back. Jyn glares from where she stands. “The poor girl’s alone, and Force knows she must be scared.” With that he brushes past him to Jyn.

Cassian can’t hear what he says, but when he returns the Doctor tells him to find pain medication. “She’s agreed to let you do it. You had better be kind to her.” Cassian finds the meds and returns to Jyn’s side, a little less charitable this time.

He hands her the pill, but she refuses it.

“Ok, well…”He rubs a hand over his face. “Here, lie down across the bench.” 

She tenses, and he realizes that it is a lot to ask. To lie down would make her vulnerable, even more than she is now.  _ Be her friend, _ the Doctor had said. But how to do that? Cassian Andor has never excelled at being friends with anyone.

“I… I’m sorry I have to do this, Jyn. But it’s the only way I feel confident. You must understand.”

She lies down where she’s told, but not before she picks up a wrench from where it sits on the floor, keeping it in her uninjured hand. The message is clear. “Make it fast.”

“Are you sure you won’t take any pain meds? This will hurt.”

“I know it will, just do it.”

He takes a breath, and goes to stand beside her head and guides her arm up. Her breath catches, but she stays quiet. And tense. Cassian can feel the Doctor’s eyes on his back. “I need you to relax, Jyn.”

Her breathing evens out slowly as she does, mostly. Her grip tightens on the wrench, and he’s sure she could knock him out in a matter of seconds if he were to do anything wrong. “Thank you.”

Slowly, so slowly, he guides her arm behind her head and toward her other shoulder until he feels the joint pop back into place. Jyn flinches, and then sits upright, testing how well she can move her arm. Cassian presses lightly on her shoulder, fingers searching for anything wrong. “Ok?”

She shrugs off his hand and stands up. “Yeah, it’s fine.”

While the Doctor shows her to a tiny washroom to clean up, as promised, Cassian returns the wrench to the toolbox and the pill to the bottle. No sense wasting perfectly good medicine.

“Well,” the Doctor says when he gets back, “She’s quite the character.”

“Mm. That’s one way to put it.”

“Do you mean… You don’t like her?”

“Well she hasn’t given me much reason to, has she?”

The Doctor doesn’t answer, only shaking his head and turning away. “Whether you like her or not, I’d appreciate it if you would help me get something for her to eat.”

Cassian agrees, and when Jyn returns a few minutes later they’ve scrounged up a decent meal for all three. She thanks the Doctor, and Cassian studiously ignores the way she ignores him.

“Back to the cell for me, isn’t it?” She says when everything’s been put away.

“Yes…” The Doctor says, in a tone that suggests it isn’t all he has to say. “No, you’re right. Come on Cassian, you too. We’re going to do some interfering.”

-

The next hour finds them snooping in the prison records, having left the TARDIS in Jyn’s cell. The Doctor pulls up file after file, muttering  _ no…no…no… _ until finally, “Ha!”

“What?”

“I’ve found our key to crippling the prison! That’s what we came for, we can go…” But he pulls up another file before the sentence is even finished, closing it before Cassian can read it. “Right. Come on!”

Jyn’s nowhere to be found when they return. 

“Do you think someone was investigating us and came to interrogate her?” Cassian asks.

“Yes, that’s possible…” The Doctor mumbles, brow furrowed. “Yes, you’re probably right. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get to the warden’s office. I won’t be long, you can wait on the TARDIS.”

He’s gone the next moment, off, Cassian’s sure, to bring the entire planet to its knees. He’s glad for that – the whole thing is painfully similar to the Imperial camps he saw undercover. Cassian unlocks the door to wait as he’s told. Slipping back into the TARDIS he picks up the scarf he’s been struggling with and settles in his favourite corner to wait.

The Doctor returns twenty minutes later with a pair of handcuffs and a shout of, “Yes, Cassian, I’ve done it!”

“Done what?”

He flips a few switches on the console. “I’ve set some things in motion so the prison will be closed by the end of the month.”

“And the handcuffs?”

“Oh, yes, those. Well, they tried to arrest me so I decided to keep them. Very uncomfortable. And that reminds me, you can come out now, Jyn.”

There’s a sharp intake of breath from the edge of the room, on the opposite side from where Cassian sat, and a discomfited, anxious Jyn climbs out from under the floor boards.

“Now, tell me. Is Lianna Halik your real name, and you gave us a fake, or is it the other way around?”

“I… My name is Jyn.”

“Yes, well. Jyn. You can come over here.”

She approaches and Cassian crosses his arms, face neutral as he slips into observant mode and the Doctor starts to list.

“Forgery of official document. Escape from custody. Resisting arrest. Impersonation of an official. Unlawful contact with undesirables, Petty theft. Shall I continue?”

She looks at the floor. “I – I’ve been alone since I was sixteen, I needed to survive!” 

Cassian doesn’t hear what it is the Doctor says then, because he steps closer to her and ducks his head down. Their conversation is quiet, and when the Doctor steps back Jyn is crying. He murmurs something that sounds like “Welcome aboard, Jyn,” and then returns to the console. Remaining where she is, Jyn shifts her weight awkwardly and Cassian approaches the Doctor.

“Aren’t we taking her back?”

“No. Why would we?”

“She’s a criminal!”

“So am I, as far as this galaxy’s concerned. So are you. And you heard her warrants – no violent crime, just survival.”

“But she snuck onto the TARDIS!”

“Exactly. And the TARDIS, if you recall, was locked.”

“Yeah?”

“And she still got in. She doesn’t let just anyone in you know, my TARDIS. She’s picky, and if she let Jyn in even when the door was locked, we should have Jyn on board. Trust me, you’ll be glad she stays.”

-

They don’t magically get along, not at all. Jyn is stubborn and defiant; Cassian is condescending and unfriendly. They butt heads at every turn, always arguing, for the first week. Eventually they learn to tolerate, and then maybe even appreciate each other.

And if the Doctor happens to walk in on them making out against the console a month later?

Well, he did tell Cassian he’d be glad she stayed.

  
  



End file.
